If you had been in charge you would have vacated the moral high ground, your would have handed over the moral authority to the terrorist and you would have created a situation where we had to garrison the Middle East for an eternity. Every single ******** village would have to have an Infantry Company to pacify it. You don't gain peace by terrifying a population into submission. They may behave for a while but they will always be plotting your murder. See the Resistance Movements that sprang up in Europe during WWII, and Afghanistan during the War with the Soviets. As a US Serviceman would you have been ok with murdering women and children? Burning their homes? Turning them out into the desert to starve and die of exposure? Because guess what that't what your saying you would have done. Google Nuremburg Tribunal. We hung a bunch of guys who did similar things.
You're right about the resistance movements in W.W.II and Afghanistan, but wasn't that supported by the US? I'm just wondering how successful any resistance would be without a superpower to rely on..